Ajax poised as Marseille bring slender gains

AFC Ajax may feel they are on course for a third two-legged European win over Olympique de Marseille after leaving the Stade Vélodrome with a 2-1 loss last week, despite being reduced to ten men in the first half.

• Erik Gerets's Marseille looked to be heading for a famous win after Benoît Cheyrou and Mamadou Niang put them into a 2-0 lead, but Luis Suárez reduced the deficit from the penalty spot and the French side failed to press home their advantage following Gregory van der Wiel's 42nd-minute dismissal after he picked up two bookings inside four minutes.

• Ajax's showing in five games against Marseille reads W3 D0 L2, with their previous home matches against the French side having netted them a win and a meaningless defeat.

• Marseille and Ajax have met in two previous two-legged UEFA club competition ties, with the Dutch outfit prevailing on both occasions.

• They first met in a 1971/72 European Champion Clubs' Cup second-round tie, with goals from Piet Keizer and Johan Cruyff giving Stefan Kovacs' Ajax a 2-1 win in France after Gilbert Gress had opened the scoring for Lucien Leduc's Marseille.

• Didier Couécou struck at both ends in the second leg before Ajax completed a 4-1 win on the night with goals from Jesaia Swart, Cruyff and Arie Haan. They went on to win the competition, beating FC Internazionale Milano 2-0 in the final in Rotterdam.

• The teams that day lined up as follows:-
Ajax: Heinz Stuy, Barry Hulshoff (Johnny Rep, 74), Ruud Krol, Ruud Suurendonk, Johan Neeskens, Jesaia Swart, Gerrie Mühren, Piet Keizer, Horst Blankenburg, Johan Cruyff, Arie Haan.
Marseille: Georges Carnus, Jean-Louis Hodoul, Bernard Bosquier, Jules Zvunka (Daniel Leclerq, 89), Edouard Kula, Jacky Novi, Gilbert Gress, Roger Magnusson, Joseph Bonnel, Josip Skoblar, Didier Couécou.

• They next met in the semi-finals of the 1987/88 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, once more playing the first leg in France, where Barry Hulshoff's Ajax beat Gérard Banide's Marseille 3-0 thanks to two goals from Rob Witschge and a third from substitute Dennis Bergkamp.

• Marseille won the return leg 2-1 in Amsterdam, with Jean-Pierre Papin and Klaus Allofs registering after Peter Larsson had opened the scoring for the home side. Ajax lost 1-0 to Belgian outsiders KV Mechelen in the final in Strasbourg.

• The teams that day lined up as follows:-
Ajax: Stanley Menzo, Danny Blind (Marcel Keizer, 69), Jan Wouters, Peter Larsson, Frank Verlaat, Aron Winter, John van't Schip, Arnold Scholten, John Bosman, Arnold Mühren, Rob Witschge.
Marseille: Henri Stambouli, Benoît Cauet (Moïse Regina, 81), Franck Passi, Karl-Heinz Förster, Claude Lowitz, Abdoulaye Diallo, Patrice Eyraud (Patrick Appriou, 56), Alain Giresse, Jean-Pierre Papin, Abedi Pelé, Klaus Allofs.

• John van't Schip and Witschge are the only players involved in any of those previous meetings who will have a role in the clubs' latest encounter. They are both assistants to Marco van Basten at Ajax.

• Ajax's record against French sides now reads P15 W9 D1 L5. At home, their record is P7 W5 D0 L2.

• Marseille's record against Dutch teams now reads P12 W5 D1 L6. In the Netherlands, their record is P5 W2 D0 L3.

• Marseille have already played two Dutch clubs this season. They lost 2-0 away and won 3-0 at home against PSV Eindhoven in the UEFA Champions League group stage, and then overcame FC Twente on penalties in the UEFA Cup Round of 32 after a 1-1 aggregate result.

• Marseille's Belgian coach Gerets and Ajax boss Van Basten came up against each other on six occasions as players. Both played for AC Milan but they were never team-mates, with Gerets leaving San Siro in 1984 and Van Basten arriving in 1987.

• They met in three league games in the Netherlands in 1986 and 1987 while Gerets was at PSV and Van Basten was at Ajax, with honours being shared – a win, a draw and a defeat each. Van Basten scored twice for his side in one of those games, a 3-0 win in Amsterdam.

• They also met three times at international level, with Gerets's Belgium having the upper hand. Van Basten scored as the countries drew 1-1 in a 1983 friendly, while Belgium won a World Cup qualifier 1-0 in 1985 and the sides drew 0-0 in Rotterdam in September 1987 in what was the two players' last competitive meeting.

• Thus, Gerets' overall record against Van Basten from their playing days reads P6 W2 D3 L1. His two away games against a side featuring Van Basten ended in a draw and a defeat.

• Van Basten has come up against Marseille on one memorable previous occasion, Milan's 1-0 defeat in the final of the 1992/93 UEFA Champions League at the Olympiastadion in Munich. It was his last professional game and his only match against a French club.

• Van Basten played against France in a 1-1 friendly draw in 1992 and led the Oranje to a 4-1 victory against Les Bleus in the group stage at UEFA EURO 2008™. Ajax keeper Maarten Stekelenburg and his Marseille counterpart Steve Mandanda were both unused substitutes in that match in Berne.

• Prior to the first leg, Gerets had never previously met Ajax in UEFA club competition, either as a player or coach.

• Ajax are unbeaten in four European home games this season, winning twice and drawing twice.

• Marseille will remember only too well that they went into the away leg of their tie against FC Zenit St. Petersburg at this stage of last season's UEFA Cup holding a 3-1 lead, only to bow out on away goals after a 2-0 loss.

• Ajax are one of four sides left in the competition to have won the UEFA Cup along with PFC CSKA Moskva (2004/05), Galatasaray AŞ (1999/00) and FC Zenit St. Petersburg (2007/08).

• Marseille's Dutch midfielder Boudewijn Zenden – a former PSV player – was a team-mate of Ajax counterpart Gabri at FC Barcelona from 1998 to 2001.

• Marseille's Julien Rodriguez and Ajax's Evander Sno locked horns when they represented Glasgow arch-rivals Rangers FC and Celtic FC respectively during the 2006/07 season. Sno was on the winning side in the Old Firm game at Celtic Park on 23 September 2006, which ended with the hosts beating Rodriguez and Co 2-0.

• Uruguayan forward Suárez is Ajax's leading UEFA Cup scorer with five goals since the first round.

• Niang is Marseille's top scorer in Europe this season with four strikes since the start of the UEFA Champions League group stage. He scored two more in the qualifying rounds but these do not count towards his total.

• Third in Ligue 1 last season, Marseille also finished third in UEFA Champions League Group D to qualify for the UEFA Cup Round of 32, where they beat Twente 7-6 in the shoot-out in Enschede after trading 1-0 home defeats.

• Ajax finished second in the Dutch top flight last season but missed out on clinching a UEFA Champions League place in the Eredivisie's end-of-season play-offs. Having taken a UEFA Cup spot instead, Ajax came second in Group F and beat ACF Fiorentina in the Round of 32, winning 1-0 in Italy and drawing 1-1 at home.

• Ajax have won just one of five penalty shoot-outs in UEFA club competition to date. Their solitary success came in the final of the 1995 Intercontinental Cup, when they beat Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense 4-3 on spot-kicks after a 0-0 draw in Tokyo. They are yet to be involved in a shoot-out in Amsterdam, but have lost all four that have taken place on European soil.

• Marseille have been involved in three UEFA club competition penalty shoot-outs. They lost 5-3 to FK Crvena Zvezda after the 1990/91 European Champion Clubs' Cup final had ended goalless, but beat KFC Germinal Beerschot Antwerpen 4-1 on spot-kicks at home after a scoreless first-round tie in the 2005/06 UEFA Cup and then overcame FC Twente 7-6 by the same method after concluding a 1-1 aggregate draw in the Netherlands in this season's UEFA Cup Round of 32.

• Ajax's Van der Wiel and Thomas Vermaelen are both serving suspensions, with Suárez, Rasmus Lindgren and Enoh Eyong within a booking of a one-match ban.

• Ronald Zubar returns from suspension for Marseille, but Hatem Ben Arfa, Cheyrou, Taye Taiwo and Bakari Koné are a yellow card shy of a lay-off.

• The draw for the quarter-finals and semi-finals takes place in Nyon on 20 March, exactly two months before the final at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium in Istanbul on 20 May.